Dr. Anne Cunningham

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to learn about me...

Reading has played a large role in my upbringing, especially since both my parents modeled the joy that they felt from reading literature, history, and newspapers. They always made time to read to me even after an evening bath. Because my family shared a love of literature, my mother often read two, three, and four books out loud to me and my siblings every day with passion. This encouraged us to become avid readers and made us excited to visit the library every week. I remember poring over all the options available to me at the library, seeing all the different books that could teach me so much about life. In fact, I would always check out the maximum amount of books possible, leaving the library with a stack of books that reached my chin. Novels such as Misty of Chincoteague opened up new and magical places and allowed me to enter a world that satisfied my love of horses. Reading the Nancy Drew series gave me an outlet—a place where I could read about the challenges other people experienced and the solutions that they found—and where I could invariably find comfort and excitement. To this day, I like to borrow and buy as many books as possible, because digging into stories and learning new information continues to bring me a great deal of comfort and delight, just as it did when I was a child.

As a parent, I have passed along this enthusiasm for reading to my son, Michael, which has always been a joyful experience. From this I have had the opportunity to introduce him to the worlds and characters that have meant so much to me. When Michael was a baby, I would cuddle with him on my lap in the rocking chair and read board book after board book with him. Michael liked The Very Hungry Caterpillar the best, perhaps because of the silly voices and sounds that I made while reading. I was particularly excited when Michael, as a toddler, began to pick up books and “read” them on his own. Sometimes the book was upside down, but he looked at the pages intently anyways and turned them until the end.

One of my favorite activities as Michael continued to grow older was during the calm before bedtime, when it was just the two of us away from the busy and hectic aspects of our day, and we could snuggle up together and read a few of his favorite books. By the time he was three years old, he was hooked, and would bring book after book to me wherever I was and asked me to read with him. I often had things to do, but how could I say no to reading a book? Let’s just say cooking dinner wasn’t a very efficient process in our household for a couple years. Many of you can probably relate.

As an educator, researcher, developmental psychologist, and mother, I have dedicated my life’s work towards understanding how one develops reading skills across a life span, and how attention, memory, and other mental processes work together when gaining those reading skills.

Degrees

Ph.D. Developmental Psychology, The University of Michigan

M.A. Developmental Psychology, Oakland University

B.S. Child Development and Teaching Credential: Early Childhood Education & Elementary Education Michigan State University